


Love

by byesweetheart (ConstantComment)



Series: Countdown [18]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Awkward Romance, Awkward Sexual Situations, Best Friends, Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Falling In Love, First Love, First Time, M/M, Romance, Soft Tobio (TM)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-29
Updated: 2017-09-29
Packaged: 2019-01-06 17:16:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12215301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConstantComment/pseuds/byesweetheart
Summary: Tobio in love.





	Love

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, readers! This is a continuation of my fic, [Easy](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11997777), but part of a larger series that has come to a close! It's been almost a year long journey, but hopefully worth the trouble to start at the beginning. :)
> 
> If you're up for hearing some tunes, a playlist for this series can be found [here](https://open.spotify.com/user/bye_sweetheart/playlist/7BqcBvnylmDTG20FZxjTFv)!

Tobio feels the jitters start again as Hinata grabs his wrist and turns him back toward Adimari’s house, pulls him through the huge sliding door and shoves it shut. Tobio wants to jiggle his leg, bounce up and down like he does during his his pre-game warm-ups. It feels almost exactly like the moments before the first whistle of a game he knows he’s going to win as Hinata tugs on his arm and leads him back through the living room to pick up their schoolbags and head to the front door. It’s a good feeling. 

Anticipation. 

Hinata looks back at Tobio. A small glance. His cheeks are red and his mouth is pink as he grasps the handle of the heavy door. In this millisecond, just like on the court, Tobio knows exactly what he’s thinking. Hinata is going to take him home.

And then…

Well, and _then_ —

“Ah, there you are!” Asahi says.

Tobio looks up from where his eyes seem to be permanently glued on Hinata’s ruddy cheeks and spots their senpais, all crowded in the doorway to the basement stairs, peering out into the open kitchen and beyond to the entryway like concerned… whatever concerned people look like. Actually, all three of them would look pretty parental if they weren’t swaying from drinking. Hinata’s hand squeezes tight around his wrist again, and Tobio’s eyes dutifully return to his boyfriend’s face. He looks nervous, but not afraid, caught with his hand on the door handle, door slightly ajar. His eyes are puffy from crying, but he looks pretty amazing anyway. 

It really is that simple, Tobio muses, remembering all the times this boy has looked imperfect, and beautiful anyway. He’s in love with Hinata Shouyou.

Although, it didn’t seem simple even five minutes ago.

“Hi guys,” Hinata says, and lifts his hand from the handle to wipe under one cheek with his shirt sleeve.

“I was worried I made bad stuff happen,” Suga says with a pout and disentangles himself from his friends. He points at Hinata. “And here we are—Hinata’s been crying!”

“Don’t be a drama queen,” Daichi sighs. “He’s smiling. You’re just drunk.”

Asahi snorts and takes a sip of whatever drink was supposed to be Tobio’s. “Looks like your advice was solid, then,” he says to Suga.

Suga whirls on Asahi and snaps, “My advice—mister beardy—is always solid!”

Daichi pulls him back toward the door and wraps a muscled arm over his chest. “Dunno if you gave advice, Koushi. Didn’t you just say, ‘You _haven’t TOLD him_ yet?’” 

“I know that!” Suga turns in his boyfriend’s arms to look into his eyes with an exaggerated frown.

“I’ve told him now,” Tobio says, and Hinata swings his head to look at him in surprise.

Asahi and Daichi smile, but Suga is still caught in his argument. “See?” he nearly yells. He _is_ pretty drunk. “My advice is _always_ solid—”

“Guys,” Asahi starts.

“You just agreed with me,” Daichi says with a smirk, exasperated, and Tobio wonders when he’ll get to that point where he can be exasperated and fond all at once when it comes to his own boyfriend. “You agreed that you didn’t give advice—”

“ _Guys_ , please—”

“Don’t argue with me, Daichi. I know what I’m saying!”

“GUYS!”

Tobio watches, morbidly amused, as his former captain and vice captain turn their heads to blink owlishly at Asahi, who looks like he deals with this behavior all the time. He looks terrified still, but familiar with their antics. Tobio turns his wrist so he can rearrange Hinata’s fingers in his palm, and Hinata raises his eyebrows, mouth twisted tight like he’s trying not to make any sort of expression but he just _can’t_ so settles on something similar to constipated.

Asahi looks similarly pained, but gestures to Tobio and Hinata, and says, “How about we let them go home, since that’s clearly what they are doing, being at the front door and all.”

Suga has enough sense to look a little sheepish, and Daichi blushes. 

“Uhm,” Hinata says. “It was really good to see you!”

“Yeah,” Tobio adds, dumbly, but it seems to do the trick.

All three of their senpais smile, even Suga, who immediately forgets what he’s arguing about to press his cheek hard into Daichi’s forearm resting over his shoulder. “Aw,” he says. “You too!”

“We’re gonna—” Hinata begins.

“Ah! Remember my advice—I mean—my _other_ advice, Hinata,” Suga whisper-yells. 

Tobio darts his eyes to Hinata, who is back to blushing red as a beet.

“Yes,” he says frantically with a bow. “Thank you, Su—”

“We’re going now,” Tobio grunts, and quickly leans behind Hinata to pry the door fully open and push him through it.

The sound of surprised laughter and shouting goodbyes mutes suddenly when the door slams behind them.

Hinata looks at him, wide-eyed, and Tobio resists asking. Instead he says, “Weren’t you going to take me home?”

Hinata’s expression melts, and he takes a deep breath before saying, “I love you, Kageyama Tobio.”

Tobio blushes, and breaks into a run.

He starts with that—running home—because he can’t bare to go any slower, any less eager. Hinata is of the same mind, as usual, quick on his heels until he can grab Tobio’s hand again and run at his side. The running lasts for several streets, like a rewind of their afternoon in twilight, holding hands and glancing at each other and grinning and maybe laughing a little nervously, zooming past the conbini’s fluorescent lights glowing from dingy windows, nearly making it back to Karasuno’s campus as light on their feet as they are… but then Hinata trips over a shoelace, and they skid and flail abruptly to a halt on the slippery, shiny-wet road.

“Ahhhh!” Hinata yells, even though they’ve both got their feet on the ground and no one’s worse for wear except for a few pens and pencils that fell out of one of Hinata’s backpack pockets during the almost-fall. He stands with his shoulders hunched and his knees bent, like if he takes another step he’ll topple over, and Tobio shakes his head.

“Stop yelling!” Tobio yells, and grabs his boyfriend’s fallen things and tosses them into his own bag, since half of them are probably stolen from his pencil case anyway.

Hinata’s yell tumbles into a laugh, and he grabs for Tobio’s hand again, before taking a deep breath and plodding determinedly in the direction of the lamppost on the other side of campus, where he left his bike. 

As Hinata unlocks the chain and stuffs it in his bag, he hums another one of his made-up songs that sounds like, “Gonna go to To-bi-o’s! Gonna leave my bike by the road. Gonna kiss him lots and lots—”

Tobio stops listening to the rest of it, because it makes him want to run again. Not away, no. It makes him want to leave Hinata’s bike by _this_ road and sprint home so they can get into his bed and he can take off Hinata’s clothes and pull him on top of him and not let go for the foreseeable future. Instead, he walks beside Hinata and his tick-tick-ticking bike. He walks beside him and his song, which goes on for several strange and winding and only sometimes rhyming stanzas, before they get to Tobio’s driveway and lean the bike against the side of the house.

Thankfully it’s very, very late when they step into the front hallway, because he hadn’t even bothered to check if his parents would be up to receive them (and ask questions about Hinata sleeping over for the umpteenth time). The lights are on, though the house is quiet, so they toe out of their shoes silently and tiptoe to Tobio’s room.

Tobio doesn’t bother to flip on the lights, or pull the guest futon from the hall closet. He just shuffles quietly to his desk, drops his bag and turns on the lamp there, and the room flickers to soft yellow light. The mood feels different almost immediately, so Tobio pretends to organize his bare desk as Hinata carefully places his backpack by the door and unzips it. Tobio doesn’t _know_ what Hinata will find in his backpack, but he has a very good idea.

He jumps when fingers brush at his waist from behind. He lets Hinata turn him slowly, and then they’re facing each other—Tobio looking down at his boyfriend’s round face, then his strong shoulders and chest covered by his unbuttoned school shirt and white tee underneath, then his hands.

Hinata is holding a string of square packets and his red tube of lubricant in one hand as he looks up at Tobio. It should feel embarrassing and bizarre, like it has the last couple times they’ve decided to get each other off, but the condoms make things more serious somehow.

“Where’d you get those?” Tobio asks, hushed.

“I have my sources,” Hinata jokes with a smug smile, but follows it quickly with, “Noya helped me pick some out.”

Tobio huffs. That’s slightly more embarrassing, now.

He leans down and kisses Hinata anyway, chasing away the weird jumble of butterflies in his chest or purring cats in his stomach—or vice versa, who knows—and humming when Hinata presses him into the hardwood of his desk. Hinata licks his lips, and then Tobio’s, and Tobio loses the plot when their tongues brush.

Kissing is good, Tobio thinks dumbly.

“Kageyama,” Hinata gasps when they end up plastered against each other, against the desk. His hands fumble to accommodate the stuff still in his hands while he grasps at Tobio’s shirt. Tobio tsks and yanks them from his hands to place them on the desk behind them. He’s a terrible multi-tasker, but Tobio’s not much better. He shoves Hinata’s button-down off his shoulders, trapping his wrists for a moment, before shoving his tee up as well and yanking it off of his body, leaving him bare. Distractions taken care of, Tobio snakes his hand between them and rubs slowly at Hinata’s growing erection. It strains his trousers visibly even in the low light and it makes Tobio’s mouth water. 

Hinata’s eyes flutter closed for a moment, and Tobio waits. But, not before squeezing him from base to tip, once.

“What?” Tobio asks, but he knows Hinata can hear the vulnerable undertone from the way he pulls away and looks up into Tobio’s eyes. He sighs loudly and grasps Tobio’s wrist between them, stopping his wandering hands.

“Are you ready to do this?” He brings his thumb up to Tobio’s cheekbone and brushes over it. “I want you so bad, but I’ll have you any way you want. It’s not... it’s not important how, right? Just, I want you. I _love_ you,” he says. He grabs both Tobio’s arms and wraps them around himself, watching him.

Tobio nods, looking away from his gaze for a moment. He focuses on the shape of Hinata’s collarbone peeking out of his shirt collar. “I’m ready,” he rasps. “I want… I love you, too, and I want you,” he replies, and his chest seizes up when he adds on a whisper, “Want you inside me.”

Hinata’s mouth drops open on a surprised moan. His dick twitches against Tobio’s thigh.

Tobio nods again, and ignores his own throbbing erection to bring Hinata to full hardness. He’s thinking about slipping down to the floor, unbuckling and unbuttoning Hinata’s trousers, sucking him into his mouth, but Hinata clutches at him too tightly for him to go anywhere just yet. So instead, he holds Hinata in his arms and strains his hips to rub off on him. His lips hover so, so close to Hinata’s ear, so he trails them down to his neck and kisses him there.

“I dunno,” Hinata warbles as Tobio sucks on his tendon, “if I can handle much extra stuff tonight. I just wanna—”

“Yeah,” Tobio agrees once he’s pulled away, leaving the soft skin red and shiny with spit. He rubs a little harder over Hinata’s erection, liking the feeling of Hinata’s thigh between his so they can rut against each other’s hips. “I—I might come soon,” he says into Hinata’s ear, “if we don’t—”

“Okay!” Hinata nearly shrieks, and shoves off of him. Tobio watches a little dazed as he unbuckles and shoves his trousers and underwear down lightning-quick and then—so fast it’s a blur—grabs a condom packet, rips it open, and… struggles through putting the condom on his very hard dick.

Tobio watches, fascinated, as he rolls it down. It takes longer than maybe it should, but Tobio can’t judge. He has _no idea_ what to do with it..

He unbuttons his own trousers and lets them fall to his ankles in a pool of fabric, stroking himself through his boxers as he watches the play of Hinata’s muscles in his forearms, and then… when Hinata’s still not done, pushes his underwear to the floor too.

He’ll let Hinata take off his shirt, at least.

He moves toward him again as the condom reaches the base of his dick, and wraps his arm around his shoulders so he can return to his favorite pastime aside from kissing Hinata's lips: kissing Hinata’s neck.

“Oh—why’s it—was it supposed to be that hard?” Hinata asks when he’s… not satisfied with the results of his labor, but... Tobio snorts, breaks away from kissing his neck and looks down between them. 

“I think…” Tobio begins.

“Oh my gosh,” Hinata groans and knocks his head into Tobio’s chest. “Did I put it on inside out? What happens if it’s inside out!? I’m starting over!”

Tobio blinks and then barks out a laugh so loud he’s worried his parents will hear it in their room on the other side of the house.

Hinata glares up at him, but also looks surprised. “Don’t—of course you’d _laugh_ like that for the first time over something like this,” he grumbles, and slides the condom off with a hiss. “It’s harder than it looks, okay! _You_ try putting—” he breaks off because more laughter erupts from Tobio’s mouth. “Stop it!” he wails, but then he’s shaking with laughter, too.

Tobio covers his face and leans into Hinata, who struggles to reach for the other condoms strewn across Tobio’s desk through his giggles. The nerves seem to have fallen away, even more so than last time when they touched each other like this. When they thought about what they’re going to do, together, now.

When Hinata retrieves another condom and manages to rip it open with slippery-sticky fingers, Tobio turns his face back into Hinata’s hair so his lips brush against his ear and says, “I love you, dumbass.”

Hinata grumbles, but then his breath hitches when Tobio follows it up by kissing his ear. 

“Love you,” Tobio says again, feels Hinata shiver under his lips, and they figure out the condom together.

Once it’s on, having discussed (argued over) the best strategies that they’ve both looked up on the internet sometime in the near past but won’t admit to—Tobio _knows_ not all of Hinata’s knowledge can be from Suga, and god, he hopes it’s not from Noya either—Hinata backs Tobio into the bed and finally rids him of his school shirt, throwing it behind him so it lands in a crinkly heap halfway on top of his dresser.

Then, they’re both naked. Well, except for Hinata’s dick, which Tobio manages not to snort at. It reminds him of when Hinata stripped down in front of him in the bathroom a little while ago, vulnerably bare and wiggling, unselfconscious. Tobio hadn’t been able to look at him fully, then.

But he does now.

He looks at Hinata, who places his smaller hands on Tobio’s stomach possessively, drags his fingernails lightly over his abs for a moment to make Tobio gasp, make his dick tighten. And then he slowly pushes him, or maybe guides him, into the cool sheets until Tobio sprawls on his back, head in the pillows and tube of lube tapping lightly at his shoulder as the bed jostles.

Hinata looks right back at him, and there’s something in his expression that makes Tobio’s eyes burn. He doesn’t have time to ponder it though, because Hinata leans down, says, “Where were we?” and kisses him again.

Always, without fail, kissing Hinata makes Tobio think that he’ll never be kissed better. But, that thought quickly fades once Hinata takes Tobio’s jaw with his slippery fingers and coaxes his mouth open. _All_ thoughts quickly fade when Hinata’s tongue is involved. Soon, their hearts race and their hips writhe against each other again, right back to that desperate moment before the desperate edge, and Tobio moves against the mattress until he can drop his legs open and let Hinata fall between them. 

“Shouyou—want you,” Tobio says when Hinata pulls away and finds the lube, uncapping it and shimmying down the bed. He doesn’t make it far, kissing Tobio’s pec… and then tonguing tentatively at Tobio’s nipple. Tobio moans lightly, nerves sizzling, and presses his fingers into Hinata’s hair at the strangely arresting feeling. Hinata plants kisses down his stomach, humming at Tobio’s gentle hands (he’s learned he shouldn’t be rough with Hinata’s hair). Hinata tongues Tobio’s belly-button less tentatively, and Tobio grunts as his stomach jolts. “Hey,” he says, without heat.

Hinata grins against his skin and trails his nose through Tobio’s happy trail, and then slowly wraps his fingers around Tobio’s aching dick.

Craning his neck, abs straining, Tobio watches Hinata’s gaze lift and his mouth open, pink and wet.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Tobio whispers, right as Hinata looks into his eyes and husks, “I love you,” against his dick. His breath is hot and his lips brush against him, making his whole body writhe. 

His mouth is hotter than his breath, sucking a kiss just under the tip, and gets hotter still when he licks up the shaft to swallow him down. 

“Shouyou,” Tobio groans and his head hits the pillow. “What—what about you?”

Hinats sucks off of him quickly. “Tobio, I’m already, like… ready to come my brains out just _thinking_ about being inside you—” Tobio moans. “—so don’t worry about me. Wanna warm you up.”

Tobio manages to lift himself up again just to say, “Want you inside me,” again as if Hinata didn’t already know, but Hinata’s hands tremor as he squeezes some lube onto his fingers, and he clumsily smears some over Tobio’s ass in his quest to find Tobio’s hole. Tobio’s eyes flutter closed at the feeling, the soft slick pads of Hinata’s fingers, then the slight burn and stretch as he pushes one in. He’s more confident this time, but his breath is shaky. Tobio feels Hinata slip his dick into his mouth again and loses himself.

His head falls back even as his elbows dig into the mattress, and his mouth falls open as Hinata thrusts his finger into him several times before slowly working another in beside it. Tobio’s body can’t decide what to do—to push onto his scissoring fingers or into his wet, sucking mouth, so he gapes and gulps shuddering breaths into his lungs instead and slowly loses the ability to hold himself up.

“Shouyou,” he hears himself whispering, “Shouyou, Shouyou.” He hopes Hinata understands what it means.

Three fingers, and Tobio shakes, wanting, _badly._

Hinata takes him into his mouth, deep, and Tobio stills completely, holding himself on the edge. “Please, please fuck me,” he gasps after a breathless age, and Hinata moans, pulls off of him with a slick noise, and pumps his fingers a couple more eager times before pulling them out.

Tobio hisses. He struggles to sit up and paws clumsily at Hinata’s hips with one hand, mouths at his collarbone as Hinata pours lube onto his dick and strokes it, once, before seizing it in a viselike grip at the base. 

“Shit,” Hinata grits out, and Tobio noses at his neck, his jaw, his ear. “M’not gonna last long at all. Tobio—”

Tobio kisses his cheek before pulling back to look at him dazedly. He thinks he was going to say something, but the words floated away the moment he saw Hinata’s eyes, heavy and dark and longing, maybe.

“Shouyou,” he mumbles, pressing his forehead against Hinata’s. “Please.”

“Wanna get on your knees? I think that’s supposed to be easi—”

“ _No_ ,” Tobio says, and licks into Hinata’s mouth when it opens in protest. They kiss for a long moment, and Tobio feels Hinata’s hand start to move over his dick absently before he stops and pulls away from Tobio’s mouth with a gasp. “Wanna see you,” Tobio finishes instead of letting Hinata argue.

Hinata falls silent and his face, muddled with lust seconds ago, softens. “Okay,” he murmurs.

They look at each other in the dim light of his bedroom, and then Hinata lifts his free hand and pushes at Tobio’s shoulder until he’s almost flush against the sheets again. He yanks a pillow from under Tobio’s head and shoves at him until he lifts his hips, and then Tobio’s hips are elevated, and then his knees are against his chest, and Hinata is shaking as he presses his dick to Tobio’s hole. Tobio slams his eyes shut and holds his breath.

“Shouyo— _ohhhhh_!” Tobio groans. His jaw drops as Hinata pushes in, just the head at first, and then, slowly, slowly pressing until he’s fully sheathed inside him. Filling him up _completely_. Tobio gusts all the air from his lungs, and opens his burning eyes.

Hinata is… vibrating as he hovers over Tobio, red chest pressed to the backs of Tobio’s thighs, fingernails biting into Tobio’s skin just under his knees. His mouth is open in a silent gasp. His brow is twisted like he’s hurt. His eyes are clenched tightly closed.

Tobio reaches for him, pries the fingers of his left hand from their death grip and tangles them with his own. 

“Gonna—” Hinata whispers, broken. “Tobio,” he pleads.

“C’mon,” Tobio says, and ignores when his eyes spill over with tears. He’s a terrible awful sap, and he feels so incredibly open and full and _good._ “Slow,” he manages to croak.

Hinata opens his eyes, and takes a deep breath as he pulls slowly out and then pushes back in. They both moan weakly at the feeling. Hinata body trembles and Tobio’s cheeks stain with tears, and it’s too good.

“You feel,” Hinata starts on the thinnest, weakest note. “It’s so incredible! I can’t—”

Tobio’s heart feels like it’ll burst if Hinata says any more, so he lifts one hand and wraps it around his headboard, and he pushes against it. He rolls his hips as much as he can from this position and listens to Hinata fall apart above him. He smiles when Hinata can no longer hold himself back.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Hinata croaks, over and over, and his hips seem to move on their own, screwing into Tobio’s ass as Tobio squeezes around him. “Tobio! You’re amazing. This feels so—”

Tobio watches him intently, even through his clouded eyes, and then Hinata’s hips jam into him. If it weren't for the sheer overwhelming stretch, Tobio’d be making a complete _mess_ of himself right now. Because he sees stars when Hinata’s dick hits his prostate. He didn’t know it was possible to see stars with your eyes closed. Hinata doesn’t hit that spot again for the next few moments, and frankly, Tobio is grateful, because he gets to watch him fall apart, when so often it feels like Hinata’s the one holding _him_ together.

“I love you,” he finds himself saying, soft, when Hinata begins to lose the ability to talk at all, too close to the edge to make any sense. Hinata opens his eyes.

“Love—” he gasps, and his eyes roll back in his head and he goes silent. Tobio feels him twitch inside him with a long, wrenching orgasm. His hips slam into Tobio for a couple strokes and, as if to punctuate it, he hits Tobio’s prostate again on a final, deep thrust.

Tobio comes, suddenly, and Hinata trembles to a stop, leaning heavily into Tobio’s legs and pushing the breath from his lungs as his dick blurts come over and over between their searing bodies.

They’re so sweaty they’re _drenched_ with it, Tobio groggily realizes as Hinata pants and, eventually, clumsily unclenches his hands from Tobio’s legs to let them fall on either side of them. He then slowly pulls out of him with a mewl, shaking here and there when the feeling is too overwhelming. Tobio makes an unhappy noise at the empty feeling, so much more apparent than it was with Hinata’s fingers—not necessarily because of size, but… Tobio isn’t sure. Maybe it’s because they were connected that way. Tobio takes a deep breath, stretches his cramping legs out, and feels his come slip down his stomach as Hinata gingerly pulls the condom off and ties it, thankfully managing to toss it into the wastebasket next to Tobio’s desk.

Hinata doesn’t announce his success. In fact, Hinata is… uncharacteristically silent, even for his usual post-orgasm haze, so Tobio peeks up at his face. He’s a mess. Collapsing back to sit on his knees, he lifts an unsteady hand and brushes his hair back. It _stays_.

“Nasty Hinata,” Tobio rasps.

Hinata blinks at him. He gusts out a breath and retorts, “ _Loud_ and nasty Kageyama.” He reaches out, strokes a hand over Tobio’s hip and traces through the pool of his come, getting tackier on their stomachs as they cool down.

Tobio huffs out a laugh and thinks that, if he wasn’t feeling so amazing right now, he’d probably care about the deep soreness that’s creeping into his whole body. He struggles to pull the pillow out from under him and lets it fall to the floor before pulling Hinata down so they lie side by side. Hinata looks weak and happy, and he leans close when Tobio turns his head. He kisses him, sweetly.

“Amazing,” Tobio admits, when they part to rest their foreheads together. 

“You are,” Hinata whispers. “It’s true.”

“Would you help me up?”

Hinata frowns sleepily. “We going somewhere?”

“Yeah. Shower,” Tobio answers. “Always shower after you’ve cooled down from your workout.”

Hinata rolls his eyes. “You’re stupid, and it’ll wake your parents up.”

“Can’t hear the pipes from the other side of the house,” Tobio reasons, and pretends not to notice how wobbly he is when they roll out of bed.

After grumbling through stripping the bed of its lube and come and sweat-damp sheets, they sneak to the bathroom on sex-weakened legs, and Tobio pulls Hinata against him even as their sweat and come dries, as the water warms up. They sway a little under the heat of the spray, not even able to kiss, but Tobio searches for the tangle of Hinata’s fingers whenever they aren’t occupied with soap or shampoo. 

“You’re the best ever,” Hinata mumbles, eyes closed, as they linger in the shower, and then, “I love you so much,” when they slip into the bath and back into each other’s arms. He sits with his back to Tobio’s stomach, this time, and they manage to keep their eyes open long enough for the immediate aches to seep from their limbs. On a fleeting, addled thought, Tobio imagines that he’s more warmed by holding Hinata than the bathwater.

Things get more complicated when Tobio guides Hinata back to his room, because they’re so barely awake it feels like a dream. After slipping on his favorite (only) pair of striped green boxers—which make Hinata giggle as he pulls one of Tobio’s sweaters from his drawers and wriggles into it with a giddy expression—Tobio sinks against the mattress pad, having given up on replacing sheets at this point, and reaches for Hinata.

Hinata pauses to look at him.

Tobio knows he’s past exhausted when the picture of Hinata in his too-big sweater and nothing else makes him want to curl around him and not _do things_ to him. Tobio flaps his hand and inwardly promises that the doing things will happen again later, as many times as they want, because they have each other—they are each other’s—for as long as they like.

Tobio knows he’ll like as long as possible.

He sighs when Hinata finally climbs in next to him and cuddles up to him, wrapping a leg and an arm around him here and there until they’re pressed completely together and Tobio frankly can’t tell where he ends and Hinata begins. He pulls his comforter overtop their tangle, and he nuzzles into Hinata’s cheek, feels himself falling for a moment. 

“You’re perfect,” Hinata croons, then yawns, “Love you, Tobio. R’mind me to tell you every... day.” 

Tobio sucks in a breath, and Hinata stirs in his arms.

In minutes, or maybe even just moments, Tobio will sink into slumber, and will dream about tomorrow and the day after that, with his best friend. In hours he’ll wake up and stretch and ache all over with remembering and the sunlight beaming in through his bedroom window, with his best friend. In days he’ll start end-of-season tournaments on a team of incredible players, and will win, with his best friend. And maybe over months he’ll be right back in this spot again, thinking about how hearts in love synchronize, and he’ll accept how ridiculously _stupid_ he is about his best friend.

But, right now, Tobio says, “I love you,” just one more time. He whispers the words on a bare breath, and feels Hinata smile against him when he dares to rest his hand over Hinata’s steady heart.

Then, Tobio sleeps.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, my friends, and thank you for being patient with me as I wandered on this journey to TOBIO-IN-LOVE (The Countdown). AND thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the love and thoughtfulness and keyboard smashing you've given this story. It's been really, really special to get back into writing with these two dweebs, so I'm a bit emotional that this is the end!
> 
> Now, I did promise another installment after this, which will be more or less an epilogue, happening a tiny way down the timeline in Tobio and Shouyou's relationship! I don't think I will be able to get to it until after K I N K T O B E R, which I will DEFINITELY be participating in (so keep a lookout for kinky Kagehins), but I will come back as soon as I am able. I want to part with this particular version of these boys even less than you do, my babes! ^__^
> 
> As mentioned, I do have a couple other ideas for larger works in the pipeline, but will be tackling them a little differently than I did with Countdown. Always trying to find ways to improve and make things interesting for myself and for y'all! Look out for those as well, but for more frequent updates on my progress, come say hello on [Tumblr](http://byesweetheart.tumblr.com/) or [Twitter](https://twitter.com/byesweetheart_)!
> 
> Oh! And leave a comment below to tell me what you thought. <3


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